The Books of My Youth is a rich collection of essays where President Ikeda delves on transformative literature that shaped his spiritual framework as a youth. There are 17 literary works being covered in this book, and some of these are: Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, Rafael Sabatini’s Scaramouch, Dante’s The Divine Comedy, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther, Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, et al.